Summer of Giles Fic - Regrets . . . I've Had a Few

[spikendru]

Today is my day at summer_of_giles, and thanks to the inspiration of my wonderful flist, I have some varied offerings for you. First up is a Giles character study, with thanks to shakatany. The icon I am using was made by the wonderful apreludetoanendTitle: Regrets . . . I've Had a Few

Comments

[shakatany]

Wow! What a lovely piece of introspection. Unfortunately, however much poor Giles may recall of his look within and the conclusions he reached, there was one glaring omission that unfortunately led to near disaster the following year when he attempted to put an end to Spike - he never acknowledged the help that Spike gave and that it was more than just the chip. His Watchers' training still ran deep where vampires were concerned and later perhaps his guilt over his previous lapses drove him to make Spike pay for the attempted rape long after Buffy put it in the past.

Through Dawn, Buffy was given the chance to live her life as a normal girl It never occurred to me that that might be one of the reason's that Buffy fought so fiercely for Dawn. Good analysis.

Thank you for trying to make sense of Giles with such a lovely story. It does put a more coherent perspective on Giles's actions in S6 *glares at canon*

Shakatany

[spikendru]

I'm so glad you liked it! And I think you're right that, in spite of everything, Giles does still buy into his indoctrination that the vampire is not your friend - it's the thing that murdered your friend. I believe he justified Buffy's relationship with Angel because Angel had a soul, but after Jenny's death, I don't think he'd ever really trust a vampire again. I figured that even thinking he was going to die, Giles still wasn't capable of acknowledging Spike's help, and still thought his decision to conspire with Robin to kill Spike was the right one - especially if he'd heard about the 'rape' from Xander, who seemed to leave out the tried part when talking with others about the situation.

I always thought that when Buffy said "She's not my sister; she's more than that - she's me!" that she viewed Dawn as the innocent normal girl part of herself that she'd had to subvert when she became the Slayer.

Thanks for your comments, and again, I'm so glad you liked this!

[quietpoet]

(came here on Petzi's rec)

I read somewhere that Buffy thought of Dawn as her human side like you have here, but also that she saw Spike as her demon side, and that's why she protected him so fiercely. Interesting thought at least

And this story is wonderful. I loved it! I can't even pick a favorite part.

[spikendru]

Oh, thank you! I'm so glad you liked. And that's a really interesting thought about Spike as her demon side - maybe that's what made the Spike and Dawn friendship in S5 and the very beginning of S6 (that, unfortunately wasn't carried over to later seasons) so mecessary for both of them; they were the two sides of Buffy. That may be why Buffy managed to deal with all the bad things happening as long as Spike and Dawn were together as friends, but when they were split up when Buffy came back, her life kind of fell apart? Hmm . . .

[petzipellepingo]

And then he'd gone-leaving the guardianship of the bloody Hellmouth to a carpenter, a computer-savvy sorceress, an ex-vengeance demon, a white witch, a magically-constructed teenager, a chipped vampire and a bloody robot-and he'd considered his duties discharged? In what possible reality could his responsibilities be considered completed? Certainly not this one!

Aww...poor Giles. I can so see him thinking about all this and yes! having so many regrets. And so many things not said.
Great job.

[spikendru]

Thank you!

*beams*

I'm so glad you liked it. I was having some trouble jump-starting my muse after the second hospitalization in two months, so I asked for request and decided to write the first three requests I got. This was one - two more to go later today!

*hugs*

[makd]

Great insight into Giles' character. (I love your insights into all the characters.)

Neat one!

[spikendru]

Thanks, sweetie! And my writing is always better because of you!

*snuggles*

[fairygothmum]

It never felt right that Giles would just abandon the Scoobies after Buffy's death. However, if looking at Dawn every day reminded him that Buffy had died in her place, I can see why he chose to leave.

Very well written story. Thanks for sharing.

[spikendru]

Oh, thank you! It never felt right to me, either. That was definitely one of those decisions made by the actor for which the character suffered. I'm so glad my suggestions for his leaving made sense to you.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

[zanthinegirl]

Wow, what a powerful little story. One of the things I love best about the Buffy-verse is the way all it's characters are so three-dimensional; they screw up and make wrong choices all the time. But they still suck it up and make extraordinary sacrifices, too. You've captured that brilliantly! This is a Giles I can believe.

Guh!

[spikendru]

Oh, thank you! ITA with you, and I believe that's the reason fanfic is still being written long after the series canon was closed.

I always felt that it was unfortunate that ASH's decision to spend more time with his family in England and Charisma's pregnancy had such a detrimental effect on their characters - and I had always loved Giles, and Cordy grew to become one of my favorite characters. I'm glad I was able to come up with an explanation for Giles' leaving that seemed to make sense.